Living Land Rice Farming Experience
Description
Hand on experience of growing, harvesting and cooking sticky rice, “Kau Niau”, finishing with a degustation of some rice based specialties. Morning Tour (without lunch) 8:00 : Pickup from your hotel 8:30-11.30 : Farming experience Morning Tour (with Lunch) Additional specialty lunch in the farm (11:30-) Farming + Lunch + Waterfalls After farming & specialty lunch, visit Ock Pop Tok Living Craft Center & Kuang Si falls (-18:00) Farming + Mekong Sunset Cruise / Pak Ou Caves After farming, visit Manifa elephant camp for lunch, Mekong sunset cruise & Pak Ou caves in the afternoon (-18:00)
Tour Options
Itinerary
This charming community farm just outside of Luang Prabang overlooks wonderful Rice Fields and Mountains. Rice is planted all year round and they welcome guests who want to learn about Rice planting and other farm activities like bamboo weaving, sugar cane pressing, black smithing. The half day programme starts at 08.30 and finishes with a tasting of rice based snacks. After farming experience, we have lunch in the farm (a selection of typical Luang Prabang dishes and fruit.) Proceeds from the Rice Experience go to supporting over 60 students with their studies and they operate free English classes for the whole village.
Highlights
What's included
Pickup Locations & Times
Pickup from your hotel at 8:00. Please let us know your pickup location by the day before tour
Traveller Ratings
Important Information
- Not recommended for travelers with spinal injuries
- Not recommended for pregnant travelers
- Not recommended for travelers with poor cardiovascular health
- Suitable for all physical fitness levels
Reviews(103)
Absolutely the highlight of my trip to Laos! I stayed overnight to get the full experience and loved every minute of it. The history, the hands-on activities, the room, the gourmet food, and the staff were all exceptional. As an educator, I highly recommend this experience. Thank you for such a memorable stay!
The Rice Farming Workshop was one of the best experiences I had in Laos! I was picked up from my hotel exactly as arranged, and our guide Keo spoke excellent English. We learned a lot throughout the experience. We were able to try every step of the rice farming process ourselves, which made it very interactive and authentic. The return transfer to the hotel was also smooth and reliable, so I was able to catch my bus to Nong Khiaw without any stress. Overall, it was a truly wonderful and authentic experience!
This firsthand account highlights what many visitors praise about the Living Land Farm: its immersive nature, the knowledgeable and engaging guides like Sai, and the opportunity to truly understand the labor and tradition behind one of Asia's most staple foods. From guiding a buffalo plough to planting seedlings and eventually enjoying delicious sticky rice, it's an educational and memorable adventure that connects you directly with Lao culture and sustainable farming practices. The Living Land Farm is renowned not only for its unique tourist experience but also as a community enterprise dedicated to organic farming methods and supporting local villagers through education and employment. It's a fantastic way to learn, get a little dirty, and contribute to a valuable local initiative. This farm is a community enterprise that offers a "Rice Farming Experience" where visitors, like your family, can get a hands-on and educational tour of the traditional rice farming process. Reviews consistently praise the farm's guides for being knowledgeable, fun, and thorough, with Sai being a frequently mentioned guide who provides a great experience. The farm is also well-regarded for its community-focused mission, using its proceeds to support local projects, education, and employment. The experience is known for being engaging for all ages, with opportunities to get hands-on with activities like working with a water buffalo, planting rice, and making rice-based snacks.
This was the best experience of our trip in Laos!! So interesting! A wonderful experience you really shouldn't miss! We booked directly with the farm via Whatsapp, and a tuktuk driver picked us up from the hotel in LP (and dropped us off afterwards as well. Our guide (as well as owner) Sai speaks such a good English! Gives so much information and so many stories and is very funny! He tells you about the history and traditions. This is something you should not miss! We also had lunch there - real good! (Organically grown food from the farm. We had vegetarian, though the meat option is the general one.) Sai will give you a great experience and also explaining in detail the process of growing rice - among other things! It also feels so good as you feel you are contributing to the people of Laos when taking part in this. Top rated! Thank you so much!!
Living land Experience This firsthand account highlights what many visitors praise about the Living Land Farm: its immersive nature, the knowledgeable and engaging guides like Sai, and the opportunity to truly understand the labor and tradition behind one of Asia's most staple foods. From guiding a buffalo plough to planting seedlings and eventually enjoying delicious sticky rice, it's an educational and memorable adventure that connects you directly with Lao culture and sustainable farming practices. The Living Land Farm is renowned not only for its unique tourist experience but also as a community enterprise dedicated to organic farming methods and supporting local villagers through education and employment. It's a fantastic way to learn, get a little dirty, and contribute to a valuable local initiative. This farm is a community enterprise that offers a "Rice Farming Experience" where visitors, like your family, can get a hands-on and educational tour of the traditional rice farming process. Reviews consistently praise the farm's guides for being knowledgeable, fun, and thorough, with Sai being a frequently mentioned guide who provides a great experience. The farm is also well-regarded for its community-focused mission, using its proceeds to support local projects, education, and employment. The experience is known for being engaging for all ages, with opportunities to get hands-on with activities like working with a water buffalo, planting rice, and making rice-based snacks.
Upon arrival we were informed that we did not receive lunch at the rice farm, although we booked the tour including lunch. That was our first big disappointment on this tour. The tour on the rice plantation was good, after 11 am, we were picked up by the transporter from Manifa travel and taken to the restaurant Tamarino Cooking School. There we should pay for lunch ourselves, which we did not do. When we got back on the road about 11.30am the van was gone. We waited over an hour, nobody picked us up. We then went back to our hotel by tuk-tuk. We are very disappointed that Manifa travel has not fulfilled our booked services for the second time.
Dear Beatrice, please accept our sincerest apologies for the series of professional failures that ruined your day; we are deeply sorry for the frustration and abandonment you experienced. We have investigated and found that our reception staff incorrectly booked your visit for June 17th instead of April 17th, which is why Living Land was unprepared to provide your lunch. During the Lao New Year holiday, our on-site communication broke down, and our team failed to exercise the proper judgment or provide the necessary support to resolve this at the time. We take full responsibility for these inexcusable errors and are initiating a full refund of your tour, which we will coordinate with you via a direct message immediately. We are truly sorry for letting you down twice and will use this serious incident to strictly review our coordination protocols during peak holiday periods.
This was so fun. I highly recommend this experience. The mornings session was followed by a delicious lunch. You’ll never take for granted rice or the hard work small Lao farmer families undertake to grow and harvest rice.
Thank you so much for this thoughtful review! We’re delighted you enjoyed the hands-on experience – planting, plowing, cutting, and threshing.Our main goal is to share the reality of Lao rice farming, so hearing that you’ll “never take rice for granted” means the world to us and to the farmer families we work with.Glad you enjoyed the lunch too! We’ll share your kind words with the team. Hope you carried that appreciation home with you. Kop chai lai!
Family with two children: An interesting, complete, immersive experience, in a beautiful place and led by a family with knowledge passed down from generation to generation. Sai is attentive, friendly and really funny. An unforgettable didactic memory. The meal is delicious and very well served. We would do it again without hesitation.
Johnny was an excellent guide. He spoke perfect English and knows so much about every aspect of rice planting, harvesting and cooking. He answered every question and made the tour fun and enjoyable.
Sounds like you had an epic time getting muddy with the rice farming experience 😄! Johnny sounds like a top-notch guide—loving how he made it fun and shared all the deets about rice cultivation 🍚. Did you try cooking up some fresh rice dishes with him too?
What a fabulous experience with hands-on learning all the steps for growing and harvesting rice. This was one of our favorite tours.
It was so nice and interesting and our guide K Soy was very funny and kind
Reviews consistently praise the farm's guides for being knowledgeable, fun, and thorough, with K SOY being a frequently mentioned guide who provides a great experience. The farm is also well-regarded for its community-focused mission, using its proceeds to support local projects, education, and employment. The experience is known for being engaging for all ages, with opportunities to get hands-on with activities like working with a water buffalo, planting rice, and making rice-based snacks.
Wonderful experience! We learned so much about not only farming rice, but how it is used for many things in rural life. Great guide and a delicious lunch.
"That's fantastic feedback! 😊 We're thrilled you learned so much and enjoyed the guide and lunch. Rice is such a big part of rural life. Thanks for joining us, hope to share more local insights with you!"
